Wagner Moura says the ending of his new Netflix thriller “The Last House” carries a message he wishes had come true after the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking with CinemaBlend about the film’s conclusion, the actor described hoping his character’s family emerges from years of isolation having genuinely changed for the better, something he felt didn’t happen in the real world once lockdowns lifted.
Directed by Louis Leterrier, the film traps the Delgado family in their Seattle home for five years after a mysterious flooding phenomenon seals them inside, before they discover that undersea creatures are behind the disaster. By the film’s end, Jason Delgado, played by Moura, captures one of the creatures and chooses to spare it rather than kill it, prompting the creatures to free his wife Ann, played by Greta Lee, along with their two children, allowing the family to finally leave the house.
Asked what he imagines happens to the family afterward, Moura said he hopes they discover the world changed for the better, adding that when the COVID pandemic ended he’d believed people would emerge with a different mindset, and that he doesn’t think that actually happened. He said he hopes the outcome is different for his characters than it was in reality.
Moura told Variety the pandemic shaped his approach to the role well before he considered the ending. He said the script’s echo of COVID resonated with him immediately, recalling the devastation the virus caused in his native Brazil alongside an unexpected intimacy he found at home with his wife and sons during lockdown, describing it as a mix of beautiful and intense moments he hadn’t experienced before. He also credited a breakfast meeting with Leterrier for sealing his decision to join a project he called a family film in the spirit of the ones he grew up watching in the 1980s and ’90s.
The film’s time-jump conclusion has proven divisive among viewers, with some early reception suggesting the movie may see a steeper drop-off in interest than titles with more uniformly positive word of mouth. Netflix has promoted the release with an unusual stunt, installing a man to live atop a billboard on Sunset Boulevard in a mock house, where he has been communicating with passersby using a whiteboard. “The Last House” is now streaming on Netflix.
